Method of producing imitations of valuable sorts of wood and tarsia style coatings



Jan. 3, 1933. J, WERNE 1,893,384

METHOD OF PRODUCING IMITATIONS OF VALUABLE SORTS OF WOOD AND TARSIASTYLE COATINGS Filed Jan. 4, 1929 I}? 1. PAPR BACK/N6 7 THIN LAYER OFPAST/N6 MA PICTURE TRAN WOODEN BOARD J. Mf 477% TTORNEYS.

Patented Jan. 3, 1933 UNITED STATES JOHN WERNER, OF BERLIN, GERMANYMETHOD OF PRODUCING IMITATION S OF VALUAIBLE SORTS OF WOOD AND TARSIA.STYLE COATINGS Application filed January 4, 1929, Serial No. 330,434,and in Germany January 10, 1928.

It is universally known to produce imitations of valuable-kinds of wood,and tarsia style coatings by attaching corresponding .metachromatypes ortransfer-prints or pictures to surfaces of wood of inferior value.

In the methods as hitherto practised for the purpose, however, it isnecessary either to use a transfer-print in which the colours arecovered by a coating or layer which is impervious to light, and which isto be attached to a polished or lacquered and polished surface of thewood under treatment, or otherwise to use a transfer-print or picturewhich is not provided with such a covering layer, and to unite the sameimmediately, with the aid of pressure and upon application of heat, witha surface of the wood which had previously been roughened for thepurpose.

The first stated process requires much troublesome manual labour and isnot applicable except in cases of small-sized work, while the other onerequires highly skilled hands and constant care and as such requirementscannot be complied with in wholesale manufacture at all times, therealizable results of this process are not satisfactory. This is mainlydue to the fact that the heat required to be applied in this process andamounting to 100 C. and more, tends to injure the colours which asusually are prepared with boiled linseed-oil as a base, or causes thesame to merge into one another so that unpleasant spots will be found onthe transferred surface which even cannot be thoroughly avoided by theinterpolation of a heat-insulating sheet of felt or the like.Consequently much damaged and unsaleable work will be produced and thecost of the faultless articles produced in this way, will be greatlyincreased thereby, and besides that the immediate attachment of atransfer-picture having no covering layer, to the roughened wood surfaceis objectionable for the reason that the transferred picture is, liableto distortions due to the direct contact with the structure and grain ofthe wood.

The object of my invention is to remedy these defects and to provide anew method 0 which will be and constitute a marked ader of the transferpicture.

Vance in the art to which this invention pertains.

In the accompanying drawing an embodiment of the invention isillustrated.

Fig. 1 shows in cross-section the different layers at time ofapplication; and

Fig. 2 shows the finished article.

a is the wooden board to be ornamented, b the thin layer of the pastymass of zinc white and a lacquer-like binding agent on the wooden boardand c the transfer picture placed with the picture side upon the saidthin layer 6, said picture being attached to a paper sheet d.

Figure .2 shows the ornamented wooden board after pressing and removingthe paper sheet at of the transfer picture and it is obvious therefromthat picture layer a and intermediate layer 12 have become completelyunited and partially penetrated into the wood surface, so that thefinished ornamental plate shows only one covering layer (6 c) of lessthickness.

The layer 0 is the color or picture layer of the transfer picture to betransferred and consists of the usual lithographic colors, that is tosay pigment colors, rubbed with oil varnish. There is provided betweenthe paper layer d and the picture layer 0, as in the case with alltransfer pictures, a water-soluble adhesive layer of gum or dextrinewhereby it is possible to remove the paper layer from the picture layerby simply wetting the paper layer with water after having made anadhesive connection between the surface to be ornamented and the picturelay- The amberlacquer referred to as being used in the binder b is anordinary amber color varnish. Accordingly the present inventioncomprises three distinct steps or operations, in general, namely firstsmoothing the surface of the wooden article to be treated by compressingor rolling the same under heat and at a high pressure by means of anysuitable pressing or rolling machine so as to impart to the surface amore or less intensive gloss, subsequently coating the smooth surface,by means of any appropriate coating machine or the like, with a thinuniform layer of a pasty 100 mass composed mainly of zinc-white or thelike and a suitable binder such as siccative, and if required, dilutedor mixed with a suitable diluting liquid such as turpentine oil or thelike, and finally attaching to the smooth surface constituted by thesaid layer or coating, when dry on its surface, any desiredtransfer-picture, by means of high pressure without application of heat;so that the picture will be uniformly and intimately united with thesaid surface.

In'carrying my invention into practice I usually apply in the last stageor operation a pressure of about 20 kg. to the square centimeter or moreand I prefer to interpose be: tween the transfer-picture and thepressing plate or surface a highly polished plate consisting of asuitable metal, alloy or any other appropriate material adapted to levelany uneveness which still may exist in the surface of the wood.

According to the described new method the coloured print of thetransferepicture unites with the surface of the wood in so intimate amanner that it is scarcely possible to remove the same therefromafterwards. further advantage resides in the fact that, due to thecold-pressing, the colours are not injured and do not merge into oneanother so that the compressing operation cannot give rise to theformation of spots or stains. An economical advantage also lies in theabsence of any necessity of subjecting the wood to expensive manualtreatment previous to the pressing operations but the chief progress inthe art attained by the new method resides-in the fact that woodenarticles of propriate drying substance.

any desired or conventional dimensions can be operated upon by means ofsuitable machinery without thereby producing any defective or spoiltpieces.

For the purpose of smoothing the surface of the wood by means of asuitable paste, as herein described, I prefer to compose the latter, asregards the proportions of the single constituents thereof, byintimately mixing or grinding 25 parts by weight of finely powderedzinc-white, so-called light-white with 35 parts by weight of ordinarysiccative, 15 parts by weight of turpentine oil and 25 parts by weightof amber lacquer. In some cases I find it advisable to use and to employinstead of ordinary siccative any other ap- It goes without saying thatalso in lieu of turpentine oil any other suitable diluting liquor suchas acetone or amylic acetate may be used without changing the resultaimed at.

It will be seen from the foregoing that the invention is particularlyuseful in what may be termed large-surface wood either because ofreduction in expense or because of the improvement obtained. I have notattempted to explain all of the minute details of the method for theywill be apparent to those skilled in the art to which this invenionrelates.

What I claim is:

1. The method of improving the surfaces of wood of inferior value, whichcomprises smoothing the surface of the wood by subjecting. the same to ahigh pressure under heat, applying a thin coating of a paste preparedfrom finely powdered zinc-white and a lac-varnish bindingagent on thesmooth surface drying said coating, and then unitin a transfer-print orpicture with the said ry coating by means of a high, uniform pressurewithout application of heat.

2. The method of improving the surfaces of wood of inferior value, whichcomprises smoothing the surface of the wood by subjecting the same to ahigh pressure under heat, applying a thin coating of a paste preparedfrom finely powdered zinc-white and a lac-varnish binding agent on thesmooth surface drying said coating, and then uniting a transfer-print orpicture with the said dry coating by means of a pressure of at least 20kg. per square centimeter without appli- A cation of heat..

3. The method of improving the surfaces of wood of inferior value, whichcomprises smoothing the surface of the wood by subjecting the same to ahigh pressure under heat, applying a thin coating of a paste preparedfrom finely powdered zinc-wh'ite and a lac-varnish binding agent on thesmooth surface then drying said coating, placing a transfer-print orpicture on the said coating and a carefully polished rigid plate uponthe said transfer-print or picture, and applying a pressure of at least20 kg. per square centi-. meter on the said plate for the purpose ofuniting the said print or picture with the said dry coating.

JOHN WERNER.

